


Hopena holo (Resolution)

by lovelornity



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Banter, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Fix-it, Episode Related, Episode: s06e11 Kuleana, Fix-It, Gap Filler, Gen, M/M, My Steve and Danny talk too much.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:44:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelornity/pseuds/lovelornity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Danny finally spared a glance over at his partner in the chair beside him. Steve was looking at him, his lips half-cocked into a smile, and his eyes widening as if to say, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Danny snorted and looked away. This was not on him.</i>
</p><p>The couples retreat episode left me with a lot of unresolved feels, so here is a filler fic reading between the lines of Steve and Danny's experience at the Better Partners Bootcamp. Can be read as slash or gen, depending on your preference.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopena holo (Resolution)

Better Partners Bootcamp. If Danny were in a forgiving mood, he might have understood why Steve would have chosen this workshop. But as it was, Danny was still trying to grasp how an insufferable weekend of feeling and sharing and blaming and putting up defenses had turned into one with all of that, plus being surrounded by bickering romantic partners whose last ditch efforts to save their relationships reminded Danny of all the ways he had failed to fight for his. Any minuscule amount of hope that this weekend might actually help combat the increasing strain present in his partnership with Steve was gone.

He could feel his partner's eyes on him, could tell that he had one of those McGarrett Smirks plastered on his face that usually set Danny off in one way or another. And so he kept his eyes focused on the shoes of his outstretched feet and pulled his crossed arms tighter around his chest, bending the name tag he had attempted to salvage by crossing out DANNO and entering DANNY in his own messy scrawl. He pictured Steve's smug face as it must have been when he signed them in, and wondered, with a scowl, if it hadn't been a mistake after all. That Steve had intentionally enrolled them in counseling for couples just to get a rise out of Danny, to put him in a situation far outside his comfort zone and watch him flounder like a swimmer caught in a rip tide.

Danny finally spared a glance over at his partner in the chair beside him. Steve _was_ looking at him, his lips half-cocked into a smile, and his eyes widening as if to say, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Danny snorted and looked away.

This was not on him.

* * *

_"I’m talking about your attitude. I’m talking about this black hole of negative energy that is Detective Danny Williams, man. . . . You ever hear of the power of positive thinking, Danny? Yeah, well, it works the other way, too. It’s the power of negative thinking. Bad things happen to negative people."_

* * *

Danny couldn't sleep. And it was not because of the inebriated Lt. Commander snoring like a hibernating grizzly bear in the pile of down pillows next to him. It was because of what he mumbled after he burst into their room with all the stealth and grace of an elephant seal, with lipstick-stained lips and smelling of moderately-expensive perfume. It bothered him that an inhibition-stunted Steve would accuse him of being inherently negative. It was one thing to joke about it in the midst of one of their generally good-natured arguments. But tonight it felt different. Steve seemed inordinately laid back following his evening of debauchery, so his assessment of Danny left a sharp sting.

 _"A black hole of negative energy."_ Steve had alluded to this many times before, but for some reason, tonight it resonated. Was he really the problem? Was he why the tension between the two of them had gone from comical to cutting? Danny was not sure when it happened. The last few years had been pretty brutal. But as he lay in bed blinking at the ceiling of his hotel room with the staccato rhythm of Steve's snoring ticking away the minutes like a metronome, Danny had an epiphany. Steve was right. He was an asshole, currently sleeping off a bout of sullen bitterness. But he had been right.

* * *

_"Eventually you're going to say something that you cannot take back. You're chipping away at all the good, and at the end of the day, there's going to be nothing left but the bad. . . You guys love each other. That's enough to me, all right? You know? You are there for her, she is there for you. That's commitment, right?"_

* * *

After the two of them finished their (shared) hamburgers and made arrangements to smuggle out as much soap as they could fit into their suitcases, Steve and Danny sat in silence for a moment, sipping their longnecks and water and people-watching.

"I'm sorry I ruined your weekend, Danny," Steve said finally, still looking out into the sea of hotel guests. "I truly just wanted us to kick back, reconnect, recharge, have some fun. The therapy getaway was just an excuse."

"Nah, buddy," Danny replied. "It's not all on you. I've been dragging my feet since the airport. The idea of being stuck on Therapy Island for three days, forced to confront whether or not our partnership is salvageable or destined for disaster, well, it was never gonna be a bro-cation in my book. I never gave you a chance. I'm sorry."

Steve's eyes spun to meet Danny's. "You really think we're doomed?" he asked, but it came out more like a worried statement of fact.

Danny rolled his eyes. "You don't listen, Steven. You never listen. All that stuff I said back there, about Rachel, about my marriage... I may not have been willing to do what it takes to save that relationship, but this?" He gestured between the two of them. "Well, I'm here, aren't I?"

Steve smiled. "Reluctantly. And mandatorily."

"Eh, you can't have everything."

Steve laughed and finished off his enormous glass of water, then switched his attention to the now half-empty bottle of beer that had come with his burger.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said last night—"

"Danny, I..." Steve started to speak in an apologetic tone, but Danny continued to talk over him.

"There may be something to what you said."

"No, Danny. I shouldn't have said that. I was wallowing and I'd been drinking. I shouldn't have said that."

"But you did," Danny replied, and Steve hung his head. "And I think you were right. I am inherently negative. Somewhere, maybe it was after finding my brother's body in a steel drum barrel, or being arrested and extradited for murder, stabbed in the gut, or finding out I have a kid my ex-wife hid from me, well... it's been a rough couple of... years, really."

"Jesus, Danny."

"I guess I never really realized how much it was weighing on me, you know? I mean, I know I'm a pretty negative guy, I know that. But somewhere along the way, it stopped being about pineapple on pizza, and became something else. And I don't... I don't know what to do about it. I've been feeling wound so tight for so long..." Danny trailed off, throwing his hands up as if in defeat.

Steve shook his head and let out a remorseful chuckle, which Danny reacted to with narrowed eyes. "I'm sorry," Steve said in response, "It's just that I understand what you mean, Danny. I do. I was _just_ there." He laughed dryly and looked across the table at the other man ruefully.

Danny was taken aback by Steve's revelation. This was not the sort of conversation the two men usually had. He knew Steve had been going through some things, but he always seemed so pulled together. It had not occurred to Danny that Steve might be struggling too. A heavy silence fell between them, and Danny searched for something to say.

"We don't talk," Steve finally said. Danny rolled his eyes, and Steve crooked his head to the side and smiled softly. "Okay, _I_ don't talk. It isn't in my nature. I find solutions to problems by acting, getting things done. All that navel-gazing bullshit is hard for me. I'd much rather be present right now then dwell in the dark places. Because you're right. This has been a bitch of a last few years. I met you at one of the darkest moments of my life, and things have just gotten crazier ever since. And somewhere along the way for me too, man, somewhere I stopped being amused by your Curmudgeonly Old Man routine and started pushing back. But I don't want to carry that darkness with me anymore, that extra weight. I can't. That's what this weekend was supposed to be about. I thought if we could leave all that behind us, things would be different. Better."

"Notwithstanding the whole mandated therapy thing," Danny replied, his expression softening as he suddenly felt lighter than he had in weeks.

"Well, it hasn't turned out _so_ bad."

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"I _was_ listening, you know. Earlier, back in group. I wasn't being an ass when I said we were making progress, Danny. After that little tirade and now right here. I feel like I understand you better than anything the therapists have dug up. We're not so different, you and I. In fact, I think we're in a better position to understand each other than just about anyone else."

"Leave it to you, Steve, to think I was talking about you in there," Danny said harshly, fully aware of his own realization that morning that while he had originally been speaking of his marriage, he had quickly veered into a grey area that perfectly described his partnership with Steve as well.

Steve read beneath Danny's churlish response and smiled. "That's the one thing about us that I never ever question, no matter what, you know? That you have my back. And I think you're right. Trust, commitment, it _is_ enough. Love," he said the word softly, "it's enough..." He quickly recovered, his voice taking on that playful tone reserved only for Danny. "'Cause I love you, man. I do. Even when you make me want to wring your neck. Hell, maybe even _especially_ when you make me want to wring your neck."

"That's sweet, Steve. I'm touched," Danny replied after a brief pause. His voice was laced with sarcasm and disinterest, but he reached across the table and laid his hand on Steve's arm.

The two men looked at one another awkwardly for a moment, before Danny finally slid his hand up Steve's arm slightly. "You need a soap detour, babe. Your arms feel like used sandpaper."

Steve glanced at his watch. "That'll have to wait. We're due for the Overcoming Sexual Incompatibility session."

Danny recoiled and looked at Steve in disbelief. "Oh no. She can't expect us to sit through that!"

Steve waggled his eyebrows in response.

"I hate you."

"I know."

"How about nine holes of golf instead? You can carry me."


End file.
